Sam Lalor will wear the No.4 jumper previously held by Dustin Martin. Picture: Richmond FC<\/p>\n
THE IMPORTANCE of Sam Lalor and Jonty Faull to Richmond’s future can now be gauged by the numbers on their backs.<\/p>\n
Lalor will now wear the No.4 previously worn by Dustin Martin, one of the greatest players in the club’s history.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Earlier on Tuesday, Faull was welcomed into the Tigers’ informal No.8 club by fellow members Dick Clay, Michael “Disco” Roach and Jack Riewoldt.<\/p>\n
Between them, those No.8s won eight premierships at Richmond.<\/p>\n
Lalor was the No.1 pick a year ago, leading a bumper draft haul for Richmond in their rebuild after their three premierships from 2017-20. Faull was recruited at No.14.<\/p>\n
While Lalor only managed 10 senior games and was hampered by hamstring injuries, he won the club’s best first-year player award. Likewise, Faull impressed in his 16 matches.<\/p>\n
Lalor wore 22 in his debut season and Faull will change from 26. Sam Banks, recruited in 2021, also moves up from 41 to six.<\/p>\n
Royce Hart, Geoff Raines and Craig Lambert are other prominent Richmond players to have worn No.4, but Martin went to a new level with his Brownlow Medal and three Norm Smiths.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere is some great (No.4) history within the club,” Lalor said in a club statement.<\/p>\n
“I wore it as a kid growing up and cannot wait to wear it for the first time.<\/p>\n
\u201cI look up to him (Martin) a lot, obviously try to base my game off him a fair bit, and he had such an impact at Richmond.<\/p>\n
\u201cHopefully, I can try and play a bit like him.<\/p>\n
“It is a massive honour to wear his number.\u201d<\/p>\n
While some sports have a rich tradition of retiring famous player numbers, the older members of the No.8 club are pleased it isn’t in the AFL.<\/p>\n
Clay, Roach and Riewoldt were at Punt Rd on Tuesday to anoint Faull as their successor.<\/p>\n
“I’m very happy to have a No.8 running around. I’m not big on the retiring of numbers,” Roach said.<\/p>\n
Richmond are in the midst of a wholesale rebuild, on and off the field. The old Jack Dyer Stand at Punt Rd is now a cavernous hole as the club also redevelops its spiritual home.<\/p>\n
Sam Lalor celebrates a goal during round 10, 2025. Picture: AFL Photos<\/p>\n
Riewoldt agreed he would have “no greater thrill” than watching Faull wear No.8 for the Tigers.<\/p>\n
Clay is the odd man out in this select group, given his three fellow Tigers are all key forwards and he made his name on the wing or in defence.<\/p>\n
But Clay was quick to point out he kicked 84 goals in his career.<\/p>\n
“It’s great that it (No.8) is carried on. It’s a very exclusive club, this one,” Clay said.<\/p>\n
As members of his family proudly looked on, Faull knew exactly what sort of company he now keeps.<\/p>\n
Jonty Faull with his parents, Ben and Jane, after it was announced he would wear the No.8 jumper from 2026. Picture: Richmond FC<\/p>\n
“I felt super-honoured and stoked to be part of that club of No.8s,” Faull said.<\/p>\n
“If I’m half the player they have been, I’m taking the right steps.<\/p>\n
“There’s a wealth of knowledge here, so I will be talking to them about different ways to improve my game – see what they reckon.”<\/p>\n
Before this season, there was some extreme speculation the new-look Tigers might not win a game.<\/p>\n
Instead, they upset arch-rival Carlton in round one and claimed another four scalps across the year.<\/p>\n
Roach said the signs on and off the field were solid.<\/p>\n
“We just walked through the gym – we only basically had one barbell, I reckon (when we played),” he said.<\/p>\n
“I can’t wait … seeing the development going on, it’s going to be great.<\/p>\n
“We’ll be cheering on (Faull) for hopefully 10-15 years.<\/p>\n
“We just expect him to be competitive and hopefully he enjoys wearing it.”<\/p>\n
Jonty Faull in action during the match between Geelong and Richmond at GMHBA Stadium in round 17, 2025. Picture: Getty Images<\/p>\n
Riewoldt was asked about the pressure that Faull might feel as the newest No.8.<\/p>\n
“It shouldn’t be daunting for him, it’s an amazing opportunity for him to start to become the player the club obviously thinks he can become,” he said.<\/p>\n
“When we see debutants, we celebrate them like wins, because we think about the potential of what these kids might have ahead of them.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Sam Lalor will wear the No.4 jumper previously held by Dustin Martin. Picture: Richmond FC THE IMPORTANCE of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":292972,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[64,63,85,83],"class_list":["post-292971","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-sports","tag-text"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/292971","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=292971"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/292971\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/292972"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=292971"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=292971"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=292971"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}